The Citroën C4 WRCs’ first outing in Bulgaria

After the first part of the season run exclusively on ice and gravel, the FIA World Rally
Championship is back on asphalt. Rally Bulgaria, will be a new challenge for the Citroën Total
World Rally Team as the event is on the WRC calendar for the first time. Sébastien Loeb et Daniel Elena, who are leading the Drivers’ World Championship, are out to score their fourth victory of the season, and to achieve this they will have to beat their team-mates, Dani Sordo and Marc Marti, who are always very quick on this type of surface.

Rally Bulgaria, one of the flagship events of the European Rally Championship, has become part of the World Championship this season. Citroën has already won this event thanks to the victory of Bruno Thiry and his Xsara Kit-Car ten years ago. For Loeb / Elena and Sordo / Marti, the rally will be a totally new challenge.

“It’s difficult to know exactly what to expect as everybody who’s told me about this event has given me a different description!” laughs Dani Sordo. “Without anticipating what lies in store, we can say that the stages are wide and quick and that the surface isn’t always in the best of states. But no worries, the team knows the car so well that it’ll be able to find the right setups for the conditions we’ll have to cope with on the spot.”

Rally Bulgaria based in Borovets, the oldest ski resort in the country, will be run on the adjacent mountain roads. There are only fourteen stages in the event whose nerve centre will be the Dolna Banya aerodrome.

“There aren’t all that many stages and some of them use the same sections in one direction or the other,” Dani goes on. “Unlike on gravel, starting sixth on the road won’t be an advantage, especially if the other cars hitting the apexes spread a lot of gravel on the lines. However, we’re happy to be back in an event on asphalt. We haven’t run on this type of surface, on which we’ve always done well, in a rally for a long time.”

Sébastien Loeb who hasn’t been beaten in a 100% asphalt event since 2005 (!) will obviously start this new rally as favourite: “It’s true that we’ve always been pretty successful on asphalt. I’m more or less in the same case as Dani: I’ve had some information about the stages we’ll have to cope with, but I don’t really pay much heed as it doesn’t change anything concerning our preparation. We’ll find out during reconnaissance what the route is like.” For the two crews of the Citroën Total World Rally Team the aim is identical – to be in a position to go for victory to score the maximum number of points in both championships.

Loeb with three victories, two second and a third place has a comfortable lead in the Drivers’ World Championship with 38 points in hand over Sébastien Ogier. Dani Sordo, whose season got off to a difficult start, currently lies sixth. In the Manufacturers’ ratings Citroën is in first place, 26 points in front of its nearest rival.